Muslims in the United States express greater tolerance for
members of other faiths than any other major religious group,
according to a major new survey and report released
Thursday by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.

They are also more likely than any other religious group to oppose
violent or military attacks against civilians, according to the
survey, “Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and
the Future.”

Nearly four out of five (78 percent) U.S. Muslims say that military
attacks against civilians can never be justified. That compares with
less than two of five Protestants (38 percent) and Catholics (39
percent) and just over four out of Jews (43 percent) who take that
position, the poll found.

Similarly, 89 percent of Muslims said attacks by “an individual
person or a small group of individuals to target and kill civilians
can never be justified.” Between 71 percent and 75 percent of
Christian and Jewish respondents agreed.

The survey also found that Jewish and Muslim Americans shared many
views, including how best to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Eighty-one percent of Muslims and 78 percent of Jews queried by
Gallup said they supported a two-state solution.

Jewish respondents were also more likely than any other group,
including Muslims themselves, to believe that Muslims face prejudice
in the U.S.

While 60 percent of Muslims agreed with the proposition that “most
Americans are prejudiced against Muslim Americans,” that was less
than the 66 percent of Jews agreed with it. Protestants and
Catholics, in contrast, were roughly evenly split on the question.

Jewish respondents (80 percent) were also more likely — besides
Muslims themselves (93 percent) — to see Muslim Americans as being
loyal to the United States, compared to less than 60 percent of
Christian respondents. Conversely, more than a third of Protestant
and Catholic respondents questioned Muslims’ loyalty, as did 19
percent of Jews.

The survey, which was based on nearly 2,500 interviews with
respondents, 475 of whom said they were Muslim, poses a major
challenge to efforts, primarily by right-wing Christian and Jewish
groups in the U.S., to depict Muslims — and Islam as a religion — as
fundamentally alien, if not actively hostile, to “Judeo-Christian” or
“Western” values and U.S. society.

Those efforts reached a high point over the past year in the form of
a largely successful effort to derail the construction of a Muslim
community center — the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” — two blocks
from the site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan and an
ongoing state-by-state campaign led by the neoconservative Center
for Security Policy (CSP) to outlaw the application of Shariah, or
Islamic law, in U.S. courts.

The latter campaign, headed by a former resident of a Jewish
settlement on the occupied West Bank, has claimed that Shariah is part
of plot by the Muslim Brotherhood to transform the United States into
an Islamic “totalitarian” state.

Those campaigns — as well as congressional hearings chaired by
Republican Rep. Peter King this year on threats allegedly posed by
Muslim extremism in the U.S. — have affected the public’s perceptions
of U.S. Muslims. Their perceptions of the U.S. was not addressed by
the survey, which is based on interviews conducted early last year
and again last October, according to Mohamed Younis, a senior analyst
at the Washington-based Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and main
author of the survey analysis.

“I really can’t speculate on the impact of those events,” he told
IPS.

The survey also didn’t break down differences of views — based on
ethnicity or other factors — among U.S. Muslims who make up the most
racially diverse religious community in the country.

Asian Muslims, who comprise about 18 percent of the total Muslim
population, enjoy particularly high incomes on average, for example,
while African-American Muslims — about 35 percent of the total — are
least well off, according to the last major Gallup survey, “Muslim
Americans: A National Portrait,” published in 2009.

Overall, Muslim Americans expressed more optimism about their lives,
including their economic well-being, than all the other major
religious groups, according to the survey.

They felt especially positive about President Barack Obama, the first
president with Muslim roots. Eighty percent said they approved of his
performance, compared to 65 percent of Jews and only 37 percent of
Protestants.

On the more negative side, nearly half of all Muslim respondents (48
percent) said they had experienced discrimination over the past year,
compared to an average of 20 percent of Protestants, Catholics, and
Jews, and 31 percent of Mormons.

And while, of all religious groups, Muslim respondents were most
likely to express confidence in the honesty of elections (57
percent), they were the least likely be registered to vote (65
percent) and to express confidence in the military (70 percent) and
in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (60 percent), no doubt because
they have been the target of repeated investigations, especially
since 9/11.

Four out of five Muslims said they do not believe it is possible to
profile a terrorist based on his or her gender, age, ethnicity, or
other demographic traits. Slightly less than half of the other major
religious groups agree with that view.

According to a “religious tolerance index” devised by Gallup, in
which respondents assess how strongly they identify with other
religions, the survey found that Muslims and Mormons were the most
accepting or “integrated” — defined as going “beyond a
live-and-let-live (or ‘tolerant’) attitude [to] actively seek to know
more about and learn from others of different religious traditions.”

Forty-four percent of Muslim respondents fit that definition,
compared to 34 percent of Catholics, 35 percent of Protestants, and
36 percent of Jews.

Asked whether U.S. Muslims were sympathetic to al-Qaeda, 92 percent
of Muslim respondents, 70 percent of Jews, 63 percent of Catholics,
and 56 percent of Protestants responded negatively. Nonetheless,
about one third of Christian respondents did not dismiss the
possibility of Muslim Americans holding some sympathy for al-Qaeda.

On foreign policy in the Muslim world, U.S. Muslims tended to be more
skeptical than other religious groups. Eighty-three percent of
Muslims said they thought the Iraq war was a mistake, compared to 74 percent
of Jews and an average of 47 percent of Christian respondents.
Muslim Americans (47 percent) were also the most likely to see U.S.
military action in Afghanistan as mistaken, compared to about one
third of Jews and Catholics and 29 percent of Protestants.

While most respondents of all religious groups said the U.S. suffered
a negative image in Muslim world, Muslim Americans (65 percent) were
the only group that attributed it to “what the U.S. has done,” as
opposed to “misinformation … about what the U.S. has done.” Seventy
percent of Catholics, 65 percent of Protestants, and 55 percent of
Jews attributed Washington’s negative image to misinformation.

20120362958 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2Flobe%2F2011%2F08%2F02%2Fus-muslims-more-tolerant%2FUS+Muslims+More+Tolerant%2C+Opposed+to+Violence+Than+Other+Faiths2011-08-03+06%3A00%3A37Jim+Lobehttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2F%3Fp%3D2012036295 to “US Muslims More Tolerant, Opposed to Violence Than Other Faiths”

On foreign policy in the Muslim world, U.S. Muslims tended to be more skeptical than other religious groups. Eighty-three percent of Muslims said they thought the Iraq war was a mistake, compared to 74 percent of Jews and an average of 47 percent of Christian respondents. Muslim Americans (47 percent) were also the most likely to see U.S. military action in Afghanistan as mistaken, compared to about one third of Jews and Catholics and 29 percent of Protestants.
————————————————————————————————————————————

Well, at least American J.e.w.s acknowledge that attacking Iraq was good for Israel.

Their response on the two-state solution is meaningless as that paradigm has been rendered meaningless by the "minor territorial adjustments" argument and the "One state solution means the destruction of the J.e.w.ish homeland" propaganda.

On foreign policy in the Muslim world, U.S. Muslims tended to be more skeptical than other religious groups. Eighty-three percent of Muslims said they thought the Iraq war was a mistake, compared to 74 percent of J.e.w.s and an average of 47 percent of Christian respondents. Muslim Americans (47 percent) were also the most likely to see U.S. military action in Afghanistan as mistaken, compared to about one third of J.e.w.s. and Catholics and 29 percent of Protestants.
————————————————————————————————————————————

Well, at least American J.e.w.s acknowledge that attacking Iraq was good for Israel.

Their response on the two-state solution is meaningless as that paradigm has been rendered meaningless by the "minor territorial adjustments" argument and the "One state solution means the destruction of the J.e.w.ish homeland" propaganda.

Islam means peace a world used by Abrahm(PUBH). Muslim means to follow commandments.
Muslims are victim around the world especially due to american foriegn policy to kill and lie on Muslims.
There will no change in mind set of us administration but we will inshallah succe against cruisaders. Allah is great. We need only patience as Allah don,t like wrong- doers.
america has become a curse for humanity.

Allah says and perhaps you are aware of this in the Quran "that He uses one people to check another". Al-Islam means the complete peaceful surrendering of ones will to the will of Allah G-d, Muslim means one who surrenders completely their will to the will of Allah G-d . Allah G-d indeed does not love wrong doers, let us work for improvement of America, it’s in every citizens better interest. We call this pursuing the pleasure of Allah G-d after all that’s doing good and Allah G-d loves those intent upon doing good.

Interestingly, the same is true of non-Muslim Asians and African-Americans. This is one of the few points in this poll not based on thoroughly subjective judgement or misjudgement by respondents; that Muslims express greater tolerance toward other religions and note they've been victims of discrimination are assertions identical to those of all non-Muslim minority groups in America. At its most accurate, I think, this survey indicates American Jews and Muslims are more aware of what their supposed to say, and that despite all this loathsome discrimination, Muslims here are optimistic about their lives and fortunes. Ah… life's contradictions.

[…] many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world," Kohut says. US Quote: Muslims More Tolerant, Opposed to Violence Than Other Faiths Quote: Nearly four out of five (78 percent) U.S. Muslims say that military attacks against […]